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Amazon is trying to integrate parts of its advertising business with a blockchain.
The e-commerce giant in Seattle is looking for a senior computer engineer to join his "FinTech advertising team focused on a Blockchain registry", according to a recent job announcement.
This new team, based in Boulder, Colorado, will focus on billing and reconciliation systems to provide transparency on transnational financial data, the job description states, adding:
"This is an opportunity to define a technological architectural direction of a green area for the Amazon advertising industry using Blockchain technology."
When asked for more details, an Amazon spokesman said the team "has nothing to share right now".
It is not clear what type of blockchain that Amazon intends to use for advertising. Previously, the blockchain team of Amazon Web Services, the business cloud for the company, had created a proprietary blockchain known as Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB) and The AWS Managed Blockchain service connects with ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric.
Follow the money
Amazon joins a number of companies that have tried to use the blockchain to simplify the opaque and twisted value chain in adtech. The general idea is that a distributed ledger can bring everyone on the same page where the advertising dollars are going and avoid discrepancies.
Just as a cryptocurrency blockchain shows which addresses have sent or received money, how much and when an adtech registry could track the amount of advertising that is placed and which brokers are cutting, the thought goes.
Whether Amazon will launch its blockchain-based advertising reconciliation platform for wider industry use remains to be seen. However, the company has a proven track record in developing internal solutions that are then offered more broadly.
An example is the QLDB of AWS, a centrally administered immutable data ledger now available in limited preview.
"We have a long and healthy tradition of carrying out internally developed projects on Amazon," said Rahul Pathak, general manager of AWS Managed Blockchain, at the CoinDesk Consensus 2019 in May.
Rahul Pathak of AWS at the Consensus 2019 image through the CoinDesk archives
